


You and me and the devil makes three

by smallscreensidekick



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Asexual Character, Body Worship, F/M, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-04-28 11:49:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5089652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smallscreensidekick/pseuds/smallscreensidekick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"And yet there was something… Foggy didn’t want to say there was something missing in their relationship. It was wonderful and complete as it was. He just had the feeling that it could be… more wonderful maybe? More complete?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Trust me, Franklin, relationships are a piece of work,” Foggy’s mother had once said in one of their more serious conversations, way before the whole family had adopted his college nickname. She sure as hell wasn’t kidding.

His first steps into a relationship with Karen had been tentative. After she had found out about Daredevil, Foggy and her had spent several nights at Josie’s just to talk and talk and talk. And then it became a kind of habit for them, keeping each other company on nights when Matt was out fighting crime. And then Karen had turned the tables on Foggy and asked him if they were on a date.

“Only if you want it to be, Miss Page,” Foggy had answered.

“I really do,” Karen had said without hesitating for a second. And that was that.

Date nights moved from bars and restaurants to Foggy’s and Karen’s respective apartments. Holding hands on their way home became kisses on the doorstep. After a while, Karen found out that Marci was probably right when she’d said that Foggy was the most attentive person she’d ever slept with.

As far as they were concerned, their relationship was going great. It wasn’t even a big deal at the office, where nothing really changed except for the occasional kiss and the more frequent innuendo from Foggy. But that was to be expected from the man who had never been able to let an opportunity for a pun go to waste, even when said pun was terrible. Matt seemed genuinely happy for them, there was no doubt about that. Matt was a terrible liar and Foggy was always able to tell when his smiles were genuine and when they weren’t.

“Just stay clear of the ‘that’s what she said’ jokes, please,” was all that Matt requested for the sake of all their sanity.

And yet there was something… Foggy didn’t want to say there was something missing in their relationship. It was wonderful and complete as it was. He just had the feeling that it could be… more wonderful maybe? More complete?

* * *

 

“Matt Murdock, you are the biggest nerd I have ever seen,” Foggy tried to say as clearly as he could given the number of beers he’d already had.

“And you,” Matt said “are the biggest nerd I’ve ever _heard_.”

Foggy started laughing. “Fair enough. But I still think picking a Thurgood Marshal documentary after this night of debauchery makes you king of the nerds. Nerd supreme.”

It was the first time in law school they were properly drunk together. After a few weekends of Foggy asking Matt if he wanted to come with him to some party or other, Matt politely declining and Foggy feeling vaguely guilty about leaving him in their room alone, Foggy decided to have the mountain come to the roommate with sensory overload. Or social anxiety. Foggy could only guess at this point.

Whatever it was, it had been a fun night for both of them, staying in, drinking and talking. And it had the pleasant side effect of Matt opening up a little more than usual.

“I only really picked it because I like hearing you narrate stuff and your drunk commentary on a documentary will probably be really funny,” he said while scooting closer to Foggy on his bed.

While the film was running in the background, Foggy realized how pleased he was with all of this. Matt hadn’t laughed a lot in these first few weeks and hearing him giggle uncontrollably now felt like a great accomplishment for some reason. Just like it felt like a huge thing that Matt was sitting so close to him after he’d always kept a certain distance between them.

It felt so good that Foggy wanted to get even closer.

Matt’s laugh growing louder while his description of the black-and-white footage became more and more outrageous, Foggy’s hazy thoughts slowly started to become clearer to spell one word of warning: fuck.

It seemed like his plan to connect to his roommate had backfired. Or rather, it had worked too well.

Foggy was slowly but surely developing a crush on Matt.

* * *

 

Of course Karen knew that Foggy had a tendency to play mother hen for everyone around him. It was clear from the way he treated their clients, from how worried he would get about Matt even before he knew how much danger Matt exposed himself to and from the sheer number of snacks he brought for her and Matt because they both had the terrible habit of forgetting to eat when buried in work.

It was no surprise that Foggy’s behavior in a relationship was not much different. He made breakfast when Karen didn’t want to give up the warmth of her bed just yet. He cleaned up when they spent the whole weekend in his apartment. He took every opportunity to make her feel good, to make her happy.

She wasn’t going to complain about pancakes in the morning or massages in the evening anytime soon but some things still felt…slightly off, somehow. It was mostly how Foggy wouldn’t let her return the favor sometimes. No Karen, don’t worry about it, he didn’t want a massage, he was fine. Just like he was fine with eating Karen out so enthusiastically that she could barely articulate herself for five minutes afterwards and then going straight to sleep. Just like he softly pushed Karen’s hands away from his beautiful naked body after he had spent half an hour tracing every inch of hers.

Karen didn’t think anything of it at first. Relationships weren’t about repaying your partner, tit for tat, not when they were in this for the long run. But the more often it happened, the more she felt something was not right.

She just didn’t know what it was. But, Karen figured, if anyone had first-hand experience of Foggy’s mother-henning, it was probably Matt.

* * *

 

Matt was slowly but surely developing a crush on Foggy.

It dawned on him the next morning, his friend still curled up next to him, probably way too tired to crawl back to his own bed after narrating three whole law documentaries. Matt couldn’t deny how comforting Foggy’s weight and warmth were beside him, grounding him in the nicest way. He tried to ignore how glad he was that Foggy ignored his protestations that he preferred to stay in their room alone while Foggy went out. But it was no use.

The realization suddenly filled him with dread. Remember how this always turned out, Murdock?

Even if Foggy miraculously felt the same about him, he still wouldn’t feel _the same_. Matt knew how it was. Law school was no different from college, the goal was always to get laid, whether that involved a string of lovers or a relationship, that didn’t matter much. But it wasn’t what Matt wanted at all.

Of course he had tried to want it but the few times he had spent with someone hadn’t been satisfying for anyone involved.

Matt didn’t want sex and he had mostly made his peace with that, he just had to avoid falling in love with anyone who did. And Foggy did, he had talked about it often enough.

Logical conclusion: Matt had to take whatever he was experiencing right now and tuck it away, never to be felt again.

Just as soon as either he or Foggy stopped pretending to still be asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Um, I hope this won’t be weird but I thought you might be able to help.” Karen hesitated. “It’s about Foggy.”  
> Matt’s tone was more serious than she had expected. “Karen, you know I’m not the best person to ask for relationship advice, right?”  
> “I know, I know,” Karen said. “Foggy advice, though?”  
> That made Matt smile a little. “Yeah, that sounds more like something I can help you with."

“Matt, can I talk to you for a second?”

On Fridays, Foggy always went out to get them all lunch, creating the perfect opportunity for Karen to speak to Matt without raising any suspicion.

“Sure, sit down,” Matt said, pushing a file away. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Um, I hope this won’t be weird but I thought you might be able to help.” Karen hesitated. “It’s about Foggy.”

Matt’s tone was more serious than she had expected. “Karen, you know I’m not the best person to ask for relationship advice, right?”

“I know, I know,” Karen said. “Foggy advice, though?”

That made Matt smile a little. “Yeah, that sounds more like something I can help you with. Anything serious? You seem nervous.”

“No, it’s just … I don’t know how to put this. When you guys were roommates, did Foggy ever … make a fuss about you? To the point where you thought it was too much?”

“You mean ‘makes all your meals and asks if you’re all right every five seconds’ level of fussing? Yes, that happened sometimes. At first I thought it was just because I’m blind, that he did all those things for me because he thought I couldn’t do them myself, but it wasn’t about that. Foggy never did that because he pitied me. He would’ve done it for anyone. Well, maybe not anyone …”

“But for anyone he loved,” Karen concluded for him.

Matt swallowed. “I guess you could say that, yeah. I mean, you know that’s just how Foggy is - caring about people is his default mode. It’s just that he gets more intense sometimes. Normally when he’s feeling stressed over something.”

“Stressed how?” That particular piece of information took Karen by surprise. What would Foggy feel stressed about in their relationship?

“A month or so before exams, Foggy usually wouldn’t let me go grocery shopping. He’d always do it before I could even think about it, or find some excuse why he had to it and not me. I think it’s his stress relief, making others happy. Something he can always do right, even if everything else is proving difficult.”

“But don’t you think that can get a bit unhealthy? What if Foggy wears himself out while trying to make me happy?”

“Then we might have to find a way to stop him at some point. I always hid his wallet when he got too obsessive over grocery shopping.” Matt chuckled but quickly got more serious again. “But I’m guessing that’s not an option in your case.”

“No, I’m afraid not.” Karen sighed. “I’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way and talk to him.”

“That sounds like a solid plan, Karen.”

“It just feels so silly. Why would I see it as a problem if Foggy cares about me a lot?”

“Maybe that’s just it. It doesn’t feel like a problem until it’s too late. Which makes it even more important that you recognized it as one.”

“You might have a point there,” Karen said. “Thanks, Matt.”

Just as Karen got up, there was a noise at the door and in came Foggy, balancing a cake on top of their lunches. “Seeing that you two barely had any breakfast, I got us all some dessert.”

Karen knew that Matt probably wasn’t aware of it, but she shot him a knowing glance anyway.

 

* * *

 

“Hey Matt, have you seen my wallet anywhere?”

Evading the truth, Matt thought, was a special way of lying. Of course he hadn’t seen it. That didn’t mean he didn’t hide it in his desk though. “No, sorry, no idea.”

“Weird. I could’ve sworn I put it on my bed a minute ago.”

Time for Matt to make an exit. “It’s okay. I’ll get us something to eat and you keep looking for it.” He would put the wallet exactly where Foggy had left it later, prompting his roommate to think about exactly how little sleep he was getting and if it was affecting his brain in any way.

Foggy sighed, clearly displeased. “All right. It’ll give you another opportunity to talk to that cute cashier, so I guess it’ll be worth it.

There it was again. “Yeah, sure.” The opportunity was there, Matt just didn’t see any necessity to take it.

“I mean, if you’re sure your thing with Melanie is over. Or maybe you want to have a thing with both of them, I don’t judge,” Foggy rambled on.

“Melanie, no, that didn’t work out.” He didn’t have to tell Foggy exactly what hadn’t worked out. As long as Foggy didn’t ask the right (or wrong) questions, Matt could just pretend he was one of those guys who had sex with other people and wanted it.

Matt didn’t feel like there was anything wrong with being asexual. He just wanted to spare himself the awkward conversations, didn’t want to destroy his friendship with Foggy by adding an unknown variable. He didn’t think Foggy would necessarily react badly. Matt just wasn’t sure what exactly Foggy would say and that scared him for some reason. As long as Matt didn’t say anything, he was safe. If he did, there was the slightest possibility that he might not be. So heterosexual until proven otherwise it was.

In many ways, Matt thought, it was similar to how he didn’t want Foggy to find out he was in love with him and how he ignored the irregularities in Foggy’s heartbeat whenever they did something that might be just off friendship territory. That way, they could remain friends. Until proven otherwise.

“You want anything in particular?” Matt asked before stepping out into the cold of the evening.

“No, just get whatever you like and get back safely,” Foggy replied, as always, caring so much with so little effort.

 

* * *

 

There were many things Karen was good at but emotional confrontation wasn’t always one of them. That was why she didn’t talk to Foggy the same day she talked to Matt, who even left the office suspiciously early to give them some space. That was why she didn’t talk to him on Saturday morning when Foggy surprised her with her favorite coffee. That was why she waited until Sunday night when they were in bed together and Foggy pushed away her wandering hands for the third time in a row.

She pulled away from him slightly. “Foggy, what are you doing?”

“I don’t know, what am I doing?” He seemed genuinely surprised.

“You’re not letting me touch you, not properly.” Karen took a deep breath before she sat up and said what she had been rehearsing in her head for a week.  “You’re doing everything for me but won’t let me do anything for you. That’s not what our relationship should be like.”

For once, Foggy was speechless, stunned by Karen’s sudden seriousness. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know that’s how you felt,” he said after a while. “Is it really that bad?”

“It’s pretty bad,” Karen said. “Look, I didn’t worry about it too much at first but Matt said that you get like this when you’re stressed about something and then I was afraid it might have something to do with us.”

“You talked to Matt about this?”

“Of course I did, he knows you better than anyone.” Karen paused for a second. “It does have something to do with us, doesn’t it? The way you’ve been behaving.”

“It’s nothing, Karen, I just…“ Foggy avoided her gaze, much slower than usual in putting one word after the next. “I’m worried,” he said simply.

“Worried about what?” Karen lay down next to him again.

“It’s stupid.”

“Tell me.”

He sighed, then turned to her. “Worried that you’ll wake up one day to find that you really wanted Matt all along.”

“Foggy, I-“ Karen began but he quickly cut her off.

“Before you say anything, I know it’s illogical. You gave me no reason to think this and I know it doesn’t make any sense. But it happened more than a couple of times in law school and I can’t seem to let go of this fear completely. It has nothing to do with you.” He managed a small smile. “It’s the last bit of the self-image issues I thought I had left behind in college. That might be why I overcompensate sometimes. Rationally, I know you don’t want Matt instead of me.”

“No, I really don’t,” Karen said. She kissed Foggy and cuddled up to him again. “Foggy?”

“Hm?”

“What if I wanted you and Matt, though?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to sublime_jumbles for betareading! 
> 
> I'm over at senor-foggy-law.tumblr.com if you want to talk


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “No, listen to me,” Karen took Foggy’s face in her hands, looking at him intently. “I am more than happy to be with you and only with you because you are a wonderful person, Foggy, and the most caring partner I could ever wish for. All I’m saying is that in a perfect scenario, we would all be doing this together, me and you and Matt. Just like everything else.”

“Come on, let’s get the hell out of here,” Foggy said, reaching for Matt’s hand and pulling him up from the stone stairs.

“You’re strong,” Matt said, bumping into Foggy with the momentum of the pull. Maybe also with the momentum of the beer they had been drinking on that memorable night they had decided to become partners after law school.

“I work out,” Foggy replied, making Matt giggle again, definitely because they had been drinking.

Matt wasn’t sure that holding onto Foggy’s arm was really helping. His future partner was swaying from side to side pretty heavily, but Matt gripped tightly anyway. Before long, this part of their friendship would be over. As soon as they started interning, there would be enough money for them to get separate apartments. Nothing luxurious, of course, but there would be no need for them to sleep in the same room, only a few feet away from each other. No more ‘accidentally’ falling asleep in the same bed and ‘complaining’ about the lack of space in the morning. Matt silently cursed himself for being a melancholic drunk.

Foggy, on the other hand, was skipping and singing all the way back to their dorm, giving an off-key rendition of “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better.” With Foggy singing both parts of the duet, it was nearly impossible for Matt to stay gloomy for too long. His protests that Foggy should probably try to be quiet at this time of night were only half-hearted. And anyway, “if I could finally get you to join in, I wouldn’t get in trouble on my own,” Foggy insisted.

Three whispered songs, a lot of giggling and two students peeking out of their doors to check what was going on in the halls later, they had finally made it into their room and onto Matt’s bed. They were both quiet for a minute, just lying next to each other and letting the room around them spin for a while before the evening was over. Before their time here was over.

Foggy must have been thinking along the same lines. “I’m gonna miss all this,” he said suddenly, his tone different from the rest of the night. “Good night, Matty.” With this, he planted a kiss right on Matt’s forehead and another one on his cheek quickly afterwards. Before Matt could really figure out what had just happened, Foggy was already in his own bed on the other side of the room.

* * *

“Sorry, what? You want what now?” Foggy broke away from her in surprise.

Karen couldn’t really blame him. This wasn’t exactly the most sensitive way to bring this up. “I’m sorry. I just thought we should probably talk about this now rather than later. And I don’t want to lie to you if this is something you’re insecure about.”

“You want me … and Matt?” Right, Foggy was still stuck on that.

“Look, I just want to be honest with you. I’ve felt drawn to both of you basically since I could think clearly again after my arrest. It’s completely confusing sometimes. At first, I put it down to how you and Matt both make me feel … safe. I thought I was confusing safety for affection and that it would eventually go away, at least for one of you. But it hasn’t, not really.”

“So what you’re saying is that I’m not enough for you. Is that it?” Foggy said, somewhere between hurt and confused.

“No, that’s not what I’m – “

Foggy interrupted her, maybe more hurt than confused. “You want me on the weekends and Matt for the rest of the week?”  

“No, listen to me,” Karen took Foggy’s face in her hands, looking at him intently. “I am more than happy to be with you and only with you because you are a wonderful person, Foggy, and the most caring partner I could ever wish for. All I’m saying is that in a perfect scenario, we would all be doing this together, me and you and Matt. Just like everything else.”

He looked at her silently for a while before moving in for a long kiss that finally broke the tense atmosphere around them. “All right,” Foggy said. “I get it. At least I think I do. But in this perfect scenario of yours, you just assume that Matt wants both of us? And that I want Matt as well?”

“Well,” Karen couldn’t suppress a small smile. “Don’t you?”

* * *

Foggy remembered what had happened the night before only seconds after he woke up. He remembered all the not strictly necessary touching between him and Matt. He remembered talking about their future. He remembered the two sloppy kisses he had pressed on Matt’s face, most of all.

Fuck.

He wanted to sit up to see if Matt was awake already but apparently what his body  remembered most of all was last night’s alcohol so he settled for just turning his head instead. Matt was still sleeping, thank God. Foggy had no idea what to do yet. Kissing had felt like the only adequate way to express his love and gratitude the night before. He didn’t really regret it either, and he was painfully sure that he loved Matt. He just wasn’t sure _how_ he loved Matt. He was even less sure how Matt felt about this whole thing because he had fled to his bed before he could see Matt’s reaction.

“Foggy?”

He wanted more time to figure things out, more clarity about his own feelings but at the same time, how else would he find out what Matt thought about all this? “Yes, Matthew?”

Matt pulled himself up with some difficulty. “Why did you let me drink so much last night?”

“Because you let me drink so much last night. I figured, if we’re going down, we’re going down together, buddy.” So Matt didn’t want to cut right to the chase either. That was okay, he would give him some room.

“You want coffee?” Matt asked.

“I think it’s not so much that I want it but more that I need it to get out of bed at all.” Maybe he would just stir the conversation in the right direction. “That was a pretty fun night last night.”

“I bet it was.” Matt chuckled.

“What do you mean?”

“I barely remember anything. I don’t even know how we made it home last night if I’m honest. I told you I’m not used to drinking so much.” Matt came over to his bed and held out a cup of coffee.

Foggy took it, glad that Matt couldn’t see the baffled look on his face. He would have more time to think about this after all. “You didn’t miss much,” Foggy said. “Just my extraordinary singing voice, but I guess you’re used to that already.”

* * *

“Of course I didn’t bring it up again,” Foggy said, after telling Karen about the whole thing. “I mean, why would I? We work well as friends, more than well. And eventually you learn to live with these weird feelings in the back of your head. Until they don’t really matter anymore.”

It was three in the morning; they had been talking for hours and they were supposed to be at work at nine. Karen wasn’t tired, though, it felt like they had broken through some kind of barrier between them and it felt good to finally be so close. She couldn’t possibly go to sleep. “I think I know what you mean,” she said. “It would probably drive me insane to hold it back for so long, but I guess it gets easier to ignore if you ignore it long enough.”

“Yeah, and if you don’t have a girlfriend who isn’t hell-bent on getting you together.” Foggy laughed and pulled her closer. They were lying face to face, only inches away from each other. “I’m still not sure how Matt feels, though. For all I know, he wants to be friends and that’s it.”

“But you also never asked.”

“No, but-“

“You beautiful idiots,” Karen said, running a hand through Foggy’s hair. “You two need to sit down and talk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, huge thanks to my wonderful betas sublime_jumbles and bravinto! 
> 
> I'm always happy to talk and take suggestions over at senor-foggy-law.tumblr.com


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Of course, Foggy knew that lying to Matt was completely, absolutely, nerve-wrackingly pointless. He could probably smell their fear. Or hear it. Or both. Foggy was sure that Matt knew something was going on behind his back. Foggy also knew that Matt was too polite to pull the “enhanced senses” card to demand explanations.

Unsurprisingly, Foggy was as much a of a master of delaying confrontation as Karen was. She probably should have figured that he wouldn’t jump at the first opportunity to talk to Matt after years and years of avoiding doing just that. Their different ideas about how this should go didn’t exactly make things easier. Karen thought it would be best if Foggy talked to Matt alone. Foggy thought that Karen should be there as well.

“I’m not an expert, but if we’re all entering into some sort of polyamorous arrangement, we should all be there to talk about it, right?”

Karen agreed and they finally decided to do it the following Friday after work, over drinks at Josie’s. Not that they wanted to seduce Matt with alcohol, but it might help them build up the nerves to utter some more eloquent variant of, “So, this relationship is going pretty well, you wanna join in?”

Foggy inevitably started to get nervous on Wednesday.

“It’ll be all right, don’t worry too much about it,” Karen said in her fourth attempt at calming him down that day.

“That’s not very reassuring and you know it, Karen Angelica Page,” Foggy said. “How am I supposed to stop worrying when I’m basically trying to change the basic structure of all of our relationships? Matt and I have been friends for – what? – five years and now I’m throwing all of that out of the window. Together with my dignity and the last pieces of my heterosexuality.”

“First of all, that’s not my middle name.”

“I’m going to get it out of you one day.”

“Second of all, I think you said goodbye to your heterosexuality a while ago.”

“You’ve got a point there.”

“And most important of all, you’re not throwing any of your friendship out the window. You’re building on it, adding to it. Changing some things, yes, that too, but I mean, look at us. We haven’t changed that much since we got together, have we? It’s like it always is, just with more touching. And more sleepovers.”

“I guess you’re right,” Foggy said and finally stopped pacing his tiny office. “It’s just… I’m already stretching my luck dating one ridiculously attractive person. I’m not sure I’ve got enough karma for two. Let alone enough for the ridiculously attractive guy I’ve sort of been in love with… well, for five years, I guess.”

“Bullshit, just look at it like a bargain. Buy one attractive partner, get one for free.” Foggy let out a laugh that was only fifty percent nerves, which Karen took as her cue to walk over and kiss him. “Please start believing that you’re also part of that category soon. Okay, my ridiculously attractive boyfriend?”

Foggy hugged her a bit tighter. “Working on it. So you’re not worried about Matt at all, Karen Elizabeth Page?”

“Also not my middle name. And I’m worried sick, I’m just putting on a brave face so you don’t go crazy.”

* * *

Matt knew that something was wrong. Foggy’s heart beat faster every time they were in the same room, and he was avoiding talking to Matt as much as humanly possible in a tiny office with three employees. The only thing Matt couldn’t figure out was what was making Foggy so uncomfortable. Karen, at least, seemed to be in on his secret, because talking to her usually brought Foggy’s heart beat back to normal. Maybe it was just something between them and Matt should just stay out of it.

“Hey Foggy,” Matt said, not quite as good at leaving things alone as he would like.

Foggy almost choked on his donut in surprise. “Yes, Matthew?”

“Everything all right with you and Karen?”

“Karen is great, I am great, everything is great,” Foggy blurted out, way too quickly.

The next day, Karen started acting weird as well and instead of calming each other down, she and Foggy seemed to make each other worse whenever they left the office with some see-through excuse (they had just come back from their second office supply run of the day).

“Are you and Foggy okay, Karen?” Matt asked when Foggy was out buying lunch.

“Yeah, sure, everything’s good. Why do you ask?”

Matt probably would have believed her if her body temperature hadn’t gone up like crazy when he asked. And if her voice hadn’t cracked. And if she hadn’t immediately started going through a bunch of files that had been in perfect order for hours.

“No reason.” Matt’s tone was probably just as convincing. But if Karen didn’t want to tell him what was going on either, she probably had her reasons.

There was no denying it: everyone at Nelson and Murdock was a terrible, terrible liar.

* * *

Of course, Foggy knew that lying to Matt was completely, absolutely, nerve-wrackingly pointless. He could probably smell their fear. Or hear it. Or both. Foggy was sure that Matt knew something was going on behind his back. Foggy also knew that Matt was too polite to pull the “enhanced senses” card to demand explanations. And so they spent a very tense Friday at the office, everybody pretending that they didn’t notice the other two practically shaking with nerves.

At exactly six o’clock, Karen knocked on Matt’s door to ask him if he was ready for their usual after-work drinks. Exactly five minutes later, they were all outside their office, Matt’s arm hooked in Foggy’s, which was trembling just a little bit more than usual. During the whole walk to Josie’s, nobody managed more than a half-assed attempt at small talk. It wasn’t until they all took a seat at a corner table with a bottle of beer in front of each of them that Matt finally broke.

“Are you finally going to tell me what’s wrong now?”

Foggy sighed. “I’m sorry, buddy, we knew you’d probably pick up on this, but this talk really needs some alcohol before it can happen.”

“Well, we’re here now. What is it?”

“Well…” Karen and Foggy said and both stopped immediately.

“Well?”

Karen looked at Foggy expectantly.

“You know how Karen and I are dating…” Foggy began, finding no other way to put it.

“I figured,” Matt deadpanned.

Foggy hesitated again. “Karen and I… were wondering if you would like to… join us? Our relationship?” It came out as not much more than a whisper, and a hurried one at that. Thank God for Matt’s super senses, otherwise he probably wouldn’t have understood a word of what Foggy had just said.

Or maybe he really hadn’t heard Foggy because Matt went silent, almost uncannily so. So quiet that Foggy soon felt the familiar need to fill the silence with more words. “Look, Matt, I know this sounds stupid, but I guess I’ve always been in love with you. There’s no other way to say it, although I sound like a soap opera right now. It doesn’t prevent me from being your friend but some small part of me had been wondering if we could be something else as well and it’s not shutting up. I can back away from this possibility and I’ll be okay because you mean so much to me. Whatever we are. I realize this sounds sappy as hell and I know that I’m just rambling now and it’s all right if you say no ... just … say something, man.”

Matt was obviously trying; at least, his mouth attempted to form words but his brain hadn’t caught up yet, and no sound was coming out.

“It’s really up to you,” Karen jumped in. “But we both love you and we would like you to be part of this if you want to be.”

“I…” Matt managed before giving up again. Foggy was painfully aware how fast his own heart was beating and there was a knot in his stomach that somehow managed to tense up more and more the longer that there was no answer to the only question on his mind right now. Wasn’t this supposed to be the moment when all the years of pining would come to an end? Shouldn’t there be kisses and hugs and declarations of love instead of awkward silences?

Matt swallowed hard. “I … I don’t know if I can do that.” His voice was barely louder than Foggy’s had been a minute ago, nearly drowned out by the Friday night cheer around them.

“Oh,” Foggy said while the knot in his stomach dissolved into an unpleasant, bitter feeling throughout his whole body. Karen said nothing, just took a long sip of her beer, avoiding Foggy’s eyes. “That’s all right then. Glad to have cleared that up.” It wasn’t meant to sound disappointed, but it didn’t fool anyone.

“It’s not about you,” Matt said. “I love you both. It’s just … I don’t think I’ll be much use to you.”

“What do you mean not much use?” Foggy asked, still not as composed as he would have liked to be.

“It’s… I don’t really do relationships, you know that, Foggy. I mean, I would like to do relationships, generally, just not all parts of them, if you know what I mean.”

“Not really. Which parts are you talking about?” Karen asked.

“Sorry, this is stupid.” Matt looked embarrassed to say the least.

“You can tell us.”

“The sex part, that’s the part I don’t do. I’ve tried and I don’t like it, I don’t feel it the way other people must and if that’s what you want me for, I can’t give that to you. I’m sorry.”

Foggy could see that Matt was trying to hold back tears but he didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. That he would never have guessed that Matt felt this way? A quip about all the girls he thought Matt dated during law school? Something about how sex isn’t everything? A joke about reproducing by splitting cells? Probably not that last one. Karen got there before him.

“So you’re asexual?” she asked.

Matt’s head jerked up. “You know that there’s a word for that?”

“Sure. I did a bit of research when my niece got old enough for sex ed. Someone’s got to tell her about sexualities other than hetero, and neither her parents nor her school are up for that task. So yeah, I know my words.”

“It just took a long time until I found about it, so it still surprises me when someone knows what asexuality is. Or believes that it exists. I usually avoid talking about it,” Matt said, voice still bitter. “But if you know that, you’ll know that I won’t be a good addition to your relationship, Karen.”

“I don’t think so,” Karen said. “I mean, if you genuinely don’t want to try dating us, that’s fine. But there’s more to this than sex and we would still like you to be part of it. At least I do. Foggy?”

“Of course,” Foggy said, reaching out to touch Matt’s hand. “Whatever you’re comfortable with.”

Matt breathed a sigh of relief and held Foggy’s hand tightly, then reached for Karen’s on his other side. “All right. I won’t go home with you straight away, I still have to process all this, and you’ll have to promise me you’ll be okay if this takes some time for me but … all right.”

It was at the same time more and less than Foggy had hoped for, the three of them sitting there, everyone holding hands. There were no great declarations of love, no kisses in all directions, no wandering hands that couldn’t stop touching, which was less than his most optimistic dreams. But there was a promise of more to follow, an almost rational compromise and nervous hands held tight, which was so, so, so much more than enough that his heart barely knew what to do with it.

“Hey Matt, did you say you love us just then?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, my beta-reading angels are bravinto and sublime_jumbles, thank you!
> 
> Shout out to DJClawson for the bit about reproducing by splitting cells! 
> 
> Come say hello over at senor-foggy-law.tumblr.com. I promise the body worship will happen soon.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Halfway through dinner, Karen realized how relieved she was. Matt’s initial unease had quickly vanished when they started their meal and made way for what was hardly different from all the other times they had eaten together before. As she had told Foggy some weeks ago, the only thing that was really different was that there was more touching, more intimacy. She still couldn’t wrap her head around how everything between the three of them felt so drastically different and so unchanged at the same time.

To say that the changes in their relationship were gradual would be overstating their speed. For a while, nothing at all happened and they all went about their days as usual, meaning Matt would come to work with minor injuries, Foggy would worry himself senseless, and Karen would try to keep all of them sane enough to do their jobs. In his less confident moments, Foggy thought doing nothing might be Matt’s subtle way of backing off from the whole polyamory thing quietly. Maybe his way of coping with it was not to talk about Foggy and Karen’s proposal until he could pretend it had never really happened in the first place. None of the confrontation with all of the suppressed emotional baggage sounded like a typical Matt Murdock approach to feelings, he thought.

But if Foggy was honest with himself, he knew that while his best friend might have had a track record of keeping important stuff to himself, Matt had never lied about his feelings once they were on the table.  _ If Matt says he needs more time, he just plainly needs some time, he’s not trying to deceive you to spare your feelings. Get it together, Nelson. _

Just as Foggy thought he might have to pin that particular line to his office wall in order to internalize it, Matt gave him all the reassurance he needed. On their way to court that afternoon, Matt took Foggy’s hand instead of his elbow. He did his best to make it look casual, but Foggy noticed that Matt’s palm was slightly sweaty and gave it an encouraging squeeze.

“One thing I’m not sure about is if we should offer Matt any … intimacies,” Karen said when Foggy told her about the hand - holding the next day. “Or if that would feel like we’re pressuring him.”

Foggy thought about that for a moment, tossing a ball back and forth between his hands. “Right now, we should probably just go with whatever Matt does. Now that we’ve started holding hands, I guess it’s okay if I offer that to him again.”

“I know we should stick to his tempo. I just hope he doesn’t feel like we don’t want to do this anymore, now that we know about his sexuality.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Foggy said, internally kicking himself for not realizing that Matt might have doubts similar to his own. “That sounds like something he would worry about. Man, this ‘healthy communication’ thing will never stop, will it?”

“I sure hope not,” Karen said, kissed him, and went back to her desk.

* * *

The solution was surprisingly easy. Whenever Karen and Foggy would leave the office together, they would ask Matt if he wanted to come along. “Nothing you’d be uncomfortable with, you can stay as long as you want and it’s absolutely okay if you say no,” Foggy added at the end of each invitation. The first couple of times, Matt took Foggy’s word for it and declined, relieved that he didn’t need to make up an excuse why he wouldn’t come.

Matt thought it was perfect. The offer to join Karen and Foggy was always there, always in the same form and always with the same level of tireless enthusiasm so characteristic of Foggy, no matter how often Matt said no. There was no pressure from either of them and they were never upset about going home without him. It also assured Matt that – however slow he was in approaching them that way – they still wanted him around. There was a place for him, whenever he wanted to take it.

And he wanted to take it soon. The last few weeks had been like a silent game in some ways. Matt would send out a signal  - he touched Karen’s arm a moment or two longer than necessary. He held Foggy’s hand. He hugged Karen tight. He brushed Foggy’s hair back behind his ear  - and then he waited for them to pick up the signal and mirror it, to show that they understood that it was part of the base of their relationship now. On their own, these little actions might not mean much, but they amounted to more and more signs of affection that slowly started filling their days. Foggy took his hand without having to ask first, Karen’s touches started to linger, they hugged a lot, and gradually, the way they behaved around each other became noticeably different while remaining completely familiar.

But he hadn’t tried to kiss either of them yet, and Karen and Foggy still went home without him. Part of Matt wanted to join them there as well. He remembered how great it was to live with Foggy and how lonely the first night in his own apartment had been in contrast. How badly he had missed the sounds and smells that made up Foggy’s presence in his life until he finally got used to only seeing him during the day. Matt had barely been able to fall asleep these first few weeks of their internship. That part of him definitely wanted to sleep in the same room as Foggy again. It was the same part that wanted to play with Karen’s hair for hours and that thought about finally finding out what his friends felt like, mapping and memorizing their bodies as much as their faces.

Another part of him was still undecided, though. There was the nagging doubt that it was just not possible for him to wake up next to someone without feeling inadequate, embarrassed or like he was withholding something from them. Were Foggy and Karen sure they still wanted him after what he told them? Or were they just being polite? Or worse, would they only realize that Matt just wasn’t enough at some later point? Did they think Matt would change his mind about this whole asexuality thing sooner or later? Matt had had enough partners who had thought so, who acted surprised when he still didn’t want sex after three or four dates, as if that was somehow news to them and he hadn’t told them about it upfront.

These were his friends, though. His endlessly accepting friends. If anyone understood what he wanted, it was Karen and Foggy. So when Foggy stood in front of his desk the following Friday night and asked if Matt wanted to have dinner with them at Foggy’s place, ending with the usual ‘no strings attached’ disclaimer, Matt agreed.

* * *

Halfway through dinner, Karen realized how relieved she was. Matt’s initial unease had quickly vanished when they started their meal and made way for what was hardly different from all the other times they had eaten together before. As she had told Foggy some weeks ago, the only thing that was really different was that there was more touching, more intimacy. She still couldn’t wrap her head around how everything between the three of them felt so drastically different and so unchanged at the same time.

But that was a puzzle for another time. Right now, she was too busy being happy that it had all worked out. That her suggestion to Foggy hadn’t destroyed their relationship but made it better for all of them instead. Glancing over Matt and Foggy on either side of her, she knew she couldn’t possibly decide between them and she was glad she didn’t have to. She loved Foggy’s flood of words as much as Matt’s more measured speech. She liked the sound of both of their laughs, especially chiming together with her own. She enjoyed looking at Matt’s sharp features as much as at Foggy’s softer ones. Most of all, she loved how at home they made her feel.

A bit later, they were all sitting on Foggy’s couch, watching TV while Foggy and Karen took turns narrating for Matt. Foggy made one of his terrible puns and Matt laughed in the dorkiest way possible, which made Karen laugh more than the actual joke. They were already sitting so closely together that Matt only had to turn his head to bring his lips to Foggy’s. The first kiss was brief but Foggy quickly went in for a second one, reaching for the back of Matt’s head with one hand and bumping their foreheads together. They remained like that for a second before Matt turned around to Karen to give her a kiss as well. When Karen opened her eyes again, she couldn’t decide again. She couldn’t decide who grinned most like an idiot - Matt, Foggy or herself.

* * *

Sometime around midnight, Karen got up to go home because she had plans with Mrs Urich early the next day.

“It’s totally fine if you want to leave as well, Matt,” Foggy said. “I don’t want to keep you. I mean, I do want to keep you, preferably forever, just not longer than you’re comfortable with.”

Matt smiled. Preferably forever sounded good. “No, I want to stay a bit longer if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure,” Foggy said. “I’ll get us another beer.”

Once they both kissed Karen good night (which took a while because now that they started, they didn’t really want to stop), they settled down on opposite sides of the couch again, feet meeting in the middle. Foggy thought Matt looked more at ease than he had for the last few weeks, half lying and half sitting there, without his glasses and slightly disheveled.

“What’s on your mind?” Matt asked after they sat in silence for a minute.

“Nothing much,” Foggy said. He was slowly getting used to the fact that Matt knew he wanted to say something before he did. “I just … I never really apologized.”

“For what?”

“For assuming all these things about you that weren’t true. Sleeping with every pretty girl that crossed your way, having countless one-night stands, all of that.”

“Apology accepted,” Matt said. “But you really don’t have to worry about it.”

“I feel guilty though,” Foggy said after taking another sip of his beer. “Here I am, bisexual as fuck and I still just assume you’re straight without thinking about it. You’d think I would know what it feels like to have your sexuality erased and that still doesn’t prevent me from doing it to other people and that disappoints me. I am disappointed with myself, Murdock.”

“Don’t be. I mean, you’re right, you made some wrong assumptions about me and it would be nice to have my sexuality acknowledged but I don’t blame you in particular for getting it wrong. I didn’t even acknowledge it to myself for a good portion of law school and I definitely wasn’t sure enough about it to correct anyone anyway.” Matt fidgeted with his bottle before he continued. “And to be honest, your assumptions gave me a solid story later, when you asked what I’d been doing the night before. Telling you I was in bed with a girl sounds a lot better than telling you I stopped a robbery.”

“Well, then there’s at least one positive thing about heteronormativity.”

Matt laughed before going quiet again. “Foggy, I’m sorry, too.”

“What are you sorry about?”

“For never telling you how I really feel about you. I almost did when you kissed me that one time before graduation but… I didn’t. You probably don’t even remember that.”

“I wish. I was mortified because of that kiss for ages,” Foggy said, shuffling closer to Matt and putting his own hand over his. “I think we’re probably both to blame for not talking about this earlier.”

“I don’t even want to think about how much sooner we could have been doing all this.”

“I don’t know,” Foggy said. “Maybe it’s actually better this way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wouldn’t have known the truth about your senses. You might have started beating up criminals and still kept it a secret from me, which might have been even worse. I might have been a jerk about your asexuality. And neither of us would have been smart enough to realize that a relationship doesn’t have to consist of two people.”

Matt smiled at that and nodded. “We would be lost without Karen.”

Foggy kissed Matt’s forehead. “I’m glad we have what we have now. We don’t have to worry about what-ifs anymore.”

“No,” Matt said and gave Foggy a long kiss. “We really don’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was loads of introspection and very little plot but I hope I can make up for it with the next chapter, which will also be the last one. If you want to chat, I'm over at senor-foggy-law.tumblr.com! 
> 
> Thanks as always to my magnificent betas, bravinto and sublime_jumbles!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Sleeping in a bed with two other people could be a mess sometimes, even when it was Foggy’s king-size bed. They had already elbowed each other in their sleep repeatedly and they had only been doing this for a bit over two weeks. But even though it could get uncomfortable at times, there was still a lot of coziness and comfort in falling asleep and waking up next to the people he loved.
> 
> It was perfect. It was too warm and the sheets probably needed to be washed, but it was perfect."

Matt woke up as he often did these days, squished in between Foggy and Karen. He could feel Foggy on his right, pressed close, one of his arms hanging over Matt’s chest. Matt was sure that position had been comfortable at some point, but it was slowly becoming too warm for him. Karen’s legs were tangled up with his own, but the rest of her body was dangerously close to falling out of bed. He gently pulled her closer, even though that meant that her hair now fell across his face like a veil.

Sleeping in a bed with two other people could be a mess sometimes, even when it was Foggy’s king-size bed. They had already elbowed each other in their sleep repeatedly and they had only been doing this for a bit over two weeks. But even though it could get uncomfortable at times, there was still a lot of coziness and comfort in falling asleep and waking up next to the people he loved.

It was perfect. It was too warm and the sheets probably needed to be washed, but it was perfect.

Matt could hear Foggy’s breathing change slightly, which meant that he was waking up. He slowly crawled out of Foggy’s hug and turned around so that he was facing him.

“Good morning,” Matt whispered, careful not to wake Karen.

“Morning,” Foggy mumbled, voice croaking. “You know it’s much too early to be up on a Sunday morning, right?”

“No idea, couldn’t reach my watch yet. I’m sort of trapped between you two,” Matt said. “What time is it?”

“I don’t know,” Foggy answered. “But I have no intention to leave the bed anytime soon, so it’s clearly much too early to get up.”

Foggy shuffled closer to Matt, put his hand on Matt’s hip and then let it wander over Matt’s upper body in slow strokes. After a while, Matt thought he might fall asleep again. He pressed himself even closer and began mirroring Foggy’s movements by gently caressing Foggy’s hips. But before Matt could really feel Foggy’s body against his own and before he could get an idea of how soft Foggy’s hips felt, Foggy practically jumped at Matt’s touch and pulled away from him. He was out of bed in no time at all.

Matt didn’t know what to say. “What happened to not getting up anytime soon?” he tried.

“Changed my mind,” Foggy said, still sounding cheerful. “I’m making us breakfast.”

* * *

Karen woke to the sound of the door being slammed shut. She turned around to find Matt lying next to her. Foggy must have been the one who just stormed out, then.

“Matt, are you up?” Karen asked, sitting up against the bed’s headboard.

“Yeah,” Matt groaned, turning around to face her.

“Everything all right with Foggy?” That was probably a redundant question. Foggy wasn’t usually the type to slam doors.

“No,” Matt answered helpfully. He seemed upset.

“Care to elaborate?” Karen said and dropped one hand into Matt’s hair.

Matt sighed. “Remember when you came to me a couple of weeks ago and said Foggy wouldn’t let you do anything nice for him? I think I’m having the same problem. Only worse, apparently.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. We were lying next to each other, Foggy started touching me but when I did the same, he got up and said he wanted to make breakfast.”

“Typical,” Karen sighed.

Matt’s brows furrowed. “Has this happened before? With you?”

“Yes, a few times actually. That’s the part I didn’t tell you about,” Karen said. “Foggy doesn’t like to be touched. No, that’s not right. I mean, he likes to be touched, you know how cuddly he is. He’s just self-conscious about it.”

Matt pulled himself up so that he was sitting next to Karen. “But why does he feel that way?” he asked.

“He doesn’t feel like he’s attractive sometimes,” Karen said. “At least that’s what he told me. He said he’s usually got it under control and that he doesn’t think like that all the time. It only happens when someone draws attention to his body, when he’s put on the spot. And I guess that’s what we’re doing when we’re touching him in places he’s self-conscious about.”

“But that’s ridiculous,” Matt said, sounding almost aggressive. If Karen had to guess, his vigilante side probably wanted to punch whoever had made Foggy feel that way. “I mean, of course his issues aren’t ridiculous but … Foggy is beautiful. He shouldn’t have to feel like that.”

Matt’s voice sounded so soft now that Karen wanted to grab him and Foggy by the shoulders and shake them until they told her why they hadn’t acted on their feelings for each other sooner. Instead, she took Matt’s hand. “I know,” she said. “I think so too. But Foggy doesn’t. And it’s so frustrating sometimes because I want to touch him properly. But he decided that the parts of his body that I find the most inviting – his chest and his hips and his belly – are the most undesirable. And I don’t know what to do about it, if I’m honest. I lost track of that problem over seducing you.” She laughed and gave Matt a nudge.

Matt smiled, although he still looked sad. “Then we should pick up where you left off.”

* * *

“Remember how I said I wanted to make breakfast? Well, turns out I actually had to buy breakfast rather than make it because I don’t have anything here that counts as food. So…” Foggy stopped talking when he saw Karen and Matt sitting next to each other on the couch, obviously silent and obviously waiting for him. He tried to laugh it off. “What’s up? Is this some kind of intervention?”

Karen stood up and walked over to him. “Yeah, I guess in a way it is. Do you want to sit down with us?” she asked.

“No, actually I want to know what’s going on and why you two look like someone died,” Foggy said, setting down his shopping bags on the kitchen counter. “Matt? Do you want to enlighten me?”

Matt opened his mouth but it took him a second before he started talking. “Karen and I are… concerned about something.”

This was it. This was Foggy’s worst nightmare. The quiet doubt at the back of his head that had sat there since Karen said she wanted Matt to be part of their relationship.  _ Their _ relationship. “You’re breaking up with me,” Foggy said slowly, already going numb at the idea of what was about to happen.

“Breaking up with you?” Karen asked, incredulous. Then her face fell and she immediately hugged Foggy tightly. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry. We should have been less grave about this.” She pulled back to look into his eyes. “We’re not breaking up with you, I promise. We just want to talk to you because we think you might not feel too confident at the moment. And we want to change that.”

Foggy said nothing, still recovering from the shock. He didn’t even notice that Matt had gotten up from the couch and joined them.

“We were so busy sorting through my issues and through getting together that we forgot to pay attention to what you’re going through, Foggy,” he said. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Me too,” Karen added. “You said you were self-conscious about your body multiple times and to be honest, I thought that would just go away once we’re all together. But these things don’t solve themselves.”

“And we know what we’ve got planned won’t solve this either,” Matt continued. “But it might help anyway. Would you come to the bedroom with us?”

Foggy took a deep breath before a slow smile crept back onto his face. “So how long did you guys practice that little speech?”

“Just once,” Matt laughed. “You weren’t gone that long.”

* * *

A few minutes later, Foggy was back in his bed with Karen to his left and Matt to his right. He was wearing the jeans and pullover he had put on earlier to go shopping. But Matt and Karen were still in the clothes they had worn to bed, which just highlighted why he was in the situation he was in right now. Karen was wearing a short pair of sleeping pants that showed the length of her beautiful legs and a t-shirt that she had borrowed from him. When Foggy wore it, it was slightly too tight on him but Karen positively disappeared in it. It hid her body instead of drawing attention to it and it made him feel enormous. Matt wasn’t any better. In fact, he was probably worse. Matt was what Foggy was supposed to look like if he believed almost every piece of media out there. Which he didn’t. Most of the time. Lean, muscled, fit. They were so beautiful, the pair of them, that Foggy sometimes didn’t know how he was supposed to fit into this relationship.

He felt horrible just thinking that. These were the people he loved. The people who loved him. His two best friends. He wasn’t supposed to be jealous of their body fat percentage, their spotless faces, their good looks. He was supposed to be happy. With them as much as with himself. But the nagging doubt remained. What would people think if they went out together, all three of them? Probably “one of these things is not like the others.”

“So what’s this big plan of yours?” Foggy asked, mainly to get rid of the thoughts whirling through his mind.

“Simple. We want to let you know how attractive you are,” Karen said. “If you let us touch you. If you’re uncomfortable with that, we don’t have to do this.”

“No, I want to do this,” Foggy said quickly. “But only if you want to. You don’t have to do this out of pity for me or whatever you good Samaritans get off on.”

“That’s not how that story works,” Matt said, Catholic as ever. “And we’re not doing this out of pity. I want to know what you feel like.”

There was so much honesty in Matt’s voice that Foggy responded before any defense mechanism could kick in. “Okay. Let’s do this. What do you want me to do?”

Karen smiled. “Just lie back and relax.”

He lay back, but the relaxing part was easier said than done. Matt started touching his chest and drew slow circles with his hands that gradually wandered lower and lower. When they reached his belly, he sucked it in on reflex. Matt’s hands stopped and hovered over Foggy’s body.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” Foggy said and tried to breathe normally again.

“Don’t worry,” Matt said and put his hands back on Foggy’s body. They were all quiet for a while. Foggy noticed the smile on Matt’s face as his fingers explored the same spots over and over again. A dip into Foggy’s navel. A hand cupping his sides where they billowed over his pants. A delicate finger drawn across the underside of his belly. Foggy realized how the repetition slowly got him used to touches he would have shied away from not an hour earlier.

“Are you staring at me?” Matt asked with a huge grin.

“Maybe,” Foggy said. “You’re smiling.”

“I’m happy that I finally get to do this,” Matt replied. “You feel great.”

“Speak for yourself,” Foggy said in mock scandal.

“Your body feels great,” Matt corrected. “It’s a lot like I imagined it.”

Foggy turned his head to look at Karen, whose smile must be as big as his own because of what Matt had just said. “I’m going to skip the part where I wonder for how long you’ve been imagining my body and go straight to asking what you imagined it would feel like,” Foggy said. When he repeated the question he sounded more earnest. “What did you imagine my body would feel like?”

“And spare us no detail,” Karen chimed in.

Matt laughed. “I knew it would be warm from all the times we hugged. I don’t think you’re ever cold. I thought it would probably be soft and soothing and inviting but solid and grounding as well. May I?” Matt’s hands were at the hem of Foggy’s pullover.

“Knock yourself out,” Foggy said. All of his alarm bells should have been ringing from the way Matt described him. But he made it sound so positive. It made him feel good. While he helped Matt with the pullover, Karen opened the button of his pants and pulled them off him. Her hands stayed on his legs.

“Fuck, Foggy, you look amazing,” Karen said. And she did look amazed, Foggy thought.

“You think so?” he asked, partly out of doubt and partly because he wanted to her to go on talking.

“Yeah, I do. I haven’t had a chance to look at you, naked and relaxed like that and it’s...” She paused, trying to find the right word. “It’s really something,” she said. “I just wish Matt wasn’t so possessive of your belly so I could have my turn.”

“Perils of polyamory,” Foggy laughed. “But believe me, there’s enough of me for both of you, I checked.” He gave his belly a pat to illustrate.

“I can’t stop yet,” Matt said. “I haven’t memorized all your stretchmarks.”

“I feel like you’ll have plenty of time to learn them by heart,” Foggy said. “And then I’ll just grow some more to set you off.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Matt said. “They feel great when I trace them against the rest of your skin. They’re beautiful.”

“They are,” Karen said. “They look like lightning.”

“Okay, Karen, let’s switch positions,” Matt laughed. “I can take a hint.”

“Finally,” Karen sighed. Instead of sitting in Matt’s spot, she lay down next to Foggy and pulled him close to her. Her touches were more eager than Matt’s, less soft but just as appreciative. She squeezed his love handles gently, grabbed his ass and even pinched his belly lightly, unable to keep her hands to herself any longer.

“Stop me if this is too much,” she said. “But I’m really glad I don’t have to wait anymore either.”

“No, go ahead,” Foggy said. Matt had settled down on his other side, entangling their legs and stroking his back. “This feels… surprisingly good.” Foggy knew this wouldn’t solve all his problems at once. That would take time, if it was possible to get rid of these feelings completely at all. But it was a start and a really good one at that. At least for the time being, he believed Karen’s and Matt’s words. He could even start to see why they found him attractive, which made him feel slightly embarrassed that he didn’t believe them in the first place.

He could have stayed there in bed a lot longer, touching and being touched, kissing and being kissed, but his stomach began to rumble noisily.

“I guess that means time for breakfast,” Matt said.

“Afraid so,” Foggy sighed. “But I don’t want to get up.”

“Breakfast in bed?” Karen offered, pushing herself closer against Foggy.

Foggy smiled. “You, Karen Page, are a hero.”

Foggy’s mum had been right all these years ago. Relationships are a piece of work. All the talking, navigating, negotiating and renegotiating they had done in these last few weeks was proof of that. But Foggy figured if it got him right where he was, in the arms of the people he loved, that piece of work was more than worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One last time, thanks so much to bravinto and sublime_jumbles for all the work they put into this with me. You two are amazing <3 
> 
> I'll probably revisit this verse at some point but this is it for now. It's been a blast. Scream at me at senor-foggy-law.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Kindly beta-read by bravinto (thank you!)
> 
> Come talk to me over at senor-foggy-law.tumblr.com


End file.
